... so my first mission was to find a Gypsy Wagon for the gypsy camp I wanted to build beside a river. I found a nice scripted splashing water texture, built a sorta river off the edge of my skybox, with a sorta gravelly bed, mourned the absense of a spline deform tool, settled on a straight river instead. Found a freebie particle-based fire, added 2, rotated one and now have a roaring campfile, originally surrounded by a donut [torus], later surrounded by a few rocks. Then to the wagon. I could not find anything that did not cost, so decided to take pictures of ones I had seen, then to make my own - no mean feat. Wagon V1.0 was hilarious, and the scale was all wrong - you could not get into it as the doors were too short [and I have not found a pose ball that gets the avatar to stoop, yet]. Quite pleased actually with the result - coming into the building project with a plan is a good idea - shape and scale of Wagon V2.0 is fine.
.
Now if I can just find out how to GROUP objects I will be a happy panda ... gotta be straight forward I would have thought - every object-oriented graphics program I have ever used has this feature ... buggered if I can find it, prolly staring at me right in the face. Interestingly [and embarrasingly] I could not for the life of me find out how to create a "notecard" - the simplest and most commonist communication method [except for chat] used in SL. Was not in the CREATE menu, was not in the FILE or EDIT menus, flummoxed if I could find it. Lindy said "look in the INVENTORY menu" and bugger me, it is right there - what banana decided that was the logical place for it?
.
The interface in 2L continues to frustrate and entertain me - my avatar has been transported into mid-air, only to plummit and splat, got trapped in objects, had others created inside me and generally go loopy when trying to move or "touch" something - my right arm sticks up sorta spazzily and my left leg shoots out perpendicular then on irregular surfaces - maybe it is a reflection of the driver, unsure what my avatar says about me, but I will put 2 or 3 of the voices in my head to the task of understanding the link. I have journeyed far and wide looking for ideas and free stuff and have stumbled across VAST areas with very few people in them - lots of retail outlets - whole SIMS [2L slang for a simulation] that are themed beautifully but are little more than shop fronts.
I want BOTS - now I do not think this is an unreasonable request but is turning out to be the single most frustrating aspect of my project - I can do it in MOO, and MUD [both of which are 19th century tools, but the 21st century 2L has nothing even like it]. I have now [many thanks to Azwaldo] got a perfectly lovely "chatter" script, and it is embeddable in objects [this takes time, here is one I prepared earlier - The COW above now talks on channel5 - please stay on the line, your meaningless dribble is important to us] but something tells me the story, that is about PEOPLE, would be better told by PEOPLE SHAPED OBJECTS. Seems 2L does not have such a thing and trust me, I have looked.
.
Searching on AVATAR only provided me with 2,874,562 different emporiums to customise my own avatar [yes, a tail, purple wings, glow-in-the-dark tap shoes and enormous multi-coloured intra-species genitalia are nice up to a point ... well, until you get to the cash register, then you realise regular human shape will be fine].
.
Searching on DOLL was startling, mostly because it meant I visited sex districts in search of an inflatable [this is NOT as seedy as it sounds, I want to dress it up, right, and have it play a role, right ... yeah, you are right, in retrospect it still sounds seedy]. There are a LOT of sex districts I am afraid, and judging by the things I can buy and try, I lead a very sheltered life. "Big Betty [L$28000, 8 poses, 5 outfits, 3 realistic noises, natural skintones]" will not, however, do as my murder victim [her startled "O" expression is repulsive and sorta funny at the same time] and "Long John [L$14800, 5 positions, 2 strap-ons, 3 outfits, 4 body types, 4 realistic animations]" is packing a weapon, and yes, it looks like it may go off at any time, but it is not a convincing musket. So I am back to the drawing board. There are clothes EVERYWHERE, my inventory is full of freebies - why can they not be worn by a clothers horse that is NOT an AVATAR??? The 2L development team are missing a prime opportunity here I think.
.
I have a sign/bill board - useful, I have scriptable books - very useful, now I have to work out how to upload textures to skin the objects ... then the story telling can sorta begin - where are you Mrs Noisy??? Taking bloody holidays I would bet, typical!!!
.
... I spent some time looking at life thru the eyes of an avatar - HAVE A READ, was interesting for me, the writer, getting inside the head of a MUD avatar, imagination is such a powerful force is it not?
.
Now if I can just find out how to GROUP objects I will be a happy panda ... gotta be straight forward I would have thought - every object-oriented graphics program I have ever used has this feature ... buggered if I can find it, prolly staring at me right in the face. Interestingly [and embarrasingly] I could not for the life of me find out how to create a "notecard" - the simplest and most commonist communication method [except for chat] used in SL. Was not in the CREATE menu, was not in the FILE or EDIT menus, flummoxed if I could find it. Lindy said "look in the INVENTORY menu" and bugger me, it is right there - what banana decided that was the logical place for it?.
The interface in 2L continues to frustrate and entertain me - my avatar has been transported into mid-air, only to plummit and splat, got trapped in objects, had others created inside me and generally go loopy when trying to move or "touch" something - my right arm sticks up sorta spazzily and my left leg shoots out perpendicular then on irregular surfaces - maybe it is a reflection of the driver, unsure what my avatar says about me, but I will put 2 or 3 of the voices in my head to the task of understanding the link. I have journeyed far and wide looking for ideas and free stuff and have stumbled across VAST areas with very few people in them - lots of retail outlets - whole SIMS [2L slang for a simulation] that are themed beautifully but are little more than shop fronts.
I want BOTS - now I do not think this is an unreasonable request but is turning out to be the single most frustrating aspect of my project - I can do it in MOO, and MUD [both of which are 19th century tools, but the 21st century 2L has nothing even like it]. I have now [many thanks to Azwaldo] got a perfectly lovely "chatter" script, and it is embeddable in objects [this takes time, here is one I prepared earlier - The COW above now talks on channel5 - please stay on the line, your meaningless dribble is important to us] but something tells me the story, that is about PEOPLE, would be better told by PEOPLE SHAPED OBJECTS. Seems 2L does not have such a thing and trust me, I have looked..
Searching on AVATAR only provided me with 2,874,562 different emporiums to customise my own avatar [yes, a tail, purple wings, glow-in-the-dark tap shoes and enormous multi-coloured intra-species genitalia are nice up to a point ... well, until you get to the cash register, then you realise regular human shape will be fine].
.
Searching on DOLL was startling, mostly because it meant I visited sex districts in search of an inflatable [this is NOT as seedy as it sounds, I want to dress it up, right, and have it play a role, right ... yeah, you are right, in retrospect it still sounds seedy]. There are a LOT of sex districts I am afraid, and judging by the things I can buy and try, I lead a very sheltered life. "Big Betty [L$28000, 8 poses, 5 outfits, 3 realistic noises, natural skintones]" will not, however, do as my murder victim [her startled "O" expression is repulsive and sorta funny at the same time] and "Long John [L$14800, 5 positions, 2 strap-ons, 3 outfits, 4 body types, 4 realistic animations]" is packing a weapon, and yes, it looks like it may go off at any time, but it is not a convincing musket. So I am back to the drawing board. There are clothes EVERYWHERE, my inventory is full of freebies - why can they not be worn by a clothers horse that is NOT an AVATAR??? The 2L development team are missing a prime opportunity here I think.
.
I have a sign/bill board - useful, I have scriptable books - very useful, now I have to work out how to upload textures to skin the objects ... then the story telling can sorta begin - where are you Mrs Noisy??? Taking bloody holidays I would bet, typical!!!
.
... I spent some time looking at life thru the eyes of an avatar - HAVE A READ, was interesting for me, the writer, getting inside the head of a MUD avatar, imagination is such a powerful force is it not?
